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Mobile Vet Center comes to CCC for veterans

Christopher Muse, Mobile Outreach Coordinator and U.S. Army veteran, brings the Mobile Vet Center to the Coconino Community College Lone Tree campus several times a year.

Flagstaff, Ariz. -- What do you do when veterans live in rural parts of the state and have a tough time getting to the services they need?

You bring the services to them.

The Mobile Vet Center visited the Coconino Community College Lone Tree Campus on Thursday, Dec. 8 as part of a cooperative effort between the College and the U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs.

“We let veterans know of various benefits that they are entitled to,” said Christopher Muse, a Vet Center Outreach Coordinator.

The Vet Center helps veterans at CCC and across northern Arizona connect with health care, disability services and compensation, educational benefits, vocational rehabilitation, home loans and more. Services include: individual counseling, group counseling, sexual trauma counseling, bereavement counseling, marital and family counseling, alcohol counseling, benefits assistance and referral, employment counseling and referral, community education, referral to community agencies, and information regarding local and national veteran organizations and projects.

According to information from the Vet Center, the community-based program was established by Congress in 1979 as part of the VA to help veterans who were experiencing problems readjusting to civilian life. The purpose of the Vet Center is to help veterans navigate the complex VA system to get the services they need to readjust. Muse said there are now 300 Vet Centers across the United States, Guam, the Philippines, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Arizona has seven Vet Centers, with two outstations on the Navajo and Hopi reservations. There are 83 Mobile Vet Centers across the country.

The Mobile Vet Center that serves Flagstaff is based out of Prescott, Muse said. The recreational vehicle that houses the Mobile Vet Center also travels to Ash Fork, Seligman, Tuba City, Sedona, Page, Cottonwood and Clarkdale – anywhere in northern Arizona where veterans don’t have access to complete services.

“We get to areas that don’t have full Vet Cetners,” Muse said. “We can bring all the services to the veterans, rather than have them go to multiple locations.”

While CCC serves about 200 veterans during a given school year, the Mobile Vet Center has “thousands” of contacts a year, Muse estimated.

“We focus anywhere there’s going to be veterans,” Muse added. In addition to stopping at CCC several times a year, the Mobile Vet Center also makes appearances at Northern Arizona University as well as events in northern Arizona, like parades and the annual Stand Down in Flagstaff. The Stand Down attracts hundreds of veterans each year that it is held.

To receive help, veterans need not have been deployed to a war zone. The Vet Center helps all veterans, Muse said.

“We want to let them know that no veteran is going to be left behind,” Muse said.